102
Shall we neglect the lesson, which, the genius of
Time, as it were, here attempts so eloquently to
impress upon us, with a pencil of light that illu-
minates the whole page of history with it’s touch:
a lesson, so humiliating to man as a short-lived
individual, yet so ennobling and so elevating to
him as forming a part of his species. Let us ima-
gine the sceptic to be placed here, and to commune
with this hoary preceptor, whom we shall suppose
to dwell alone in these awful, desolated solitudes;
and then demand of him: do these monuments
speak truth and conviction ? and, are there not other
mighty truths, collateral facts, and occurrences,
of which you are still more doubtful, if not more
ignorant; whose evidence may not be less conclu-
sive, although, perchance, no such tangible proofs
now lie before you ? We fear that there are ! Have
you examined the evidence upon which those co-
temporary facts are founded, and have been already
engraven upon the page of history? It is to be
feared, not! And here we imagine the angry genius
to break off all communication with a frail and short-
sighted mortal, who is yet so presumptuous, and so
blind to his own great interests, as to measure his,
some fifty years’ experience, with that of a being,
whose forehead is deeply channelled with the cares
and research of ages.
Shall we neglect the lesson, which, the genius of
Time, as it were, here attempts so eloquently to
impress upon us, with a pencil of light that illu-
minates the whole page of history with it’s touch:
a lesson, so humiliating to man as a short-lived
individual, yet so ennobling and so elevating to
him as forming a part of his species. Let us ima-
gine the sceptic to be placed here, and to commune
with this hoary preceptor, whom we shall suppose
to dwell alone in these awful, desolated solitudes;
and then demand of him: do these monuments
speak truth and conviction ? and, are there not other
mighty truths, collateral facts, and occurrences,
of which you are still more doubtful, if not more
ignorant; whose evidence may not be less conclu-
sive, although, perchance, no such tangible proofs
now lie before you ? We fear that there are ! Have
you examined the evidence upon which those co-
temporary facts are founded, and have been already
engraven upon the page of history? It is to be
feared, not! And here we imagine the angry genius
to break off all communication with a frail and short-
sighted mortal, who is yet so presumptuous, and so
blind to his own great interests, as to measure his,
some fifty years’ experience, with that of a being,
whose forehead is deeply channelled with the cares
and research of ages.